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Panasonic has three new Blu Ray HTIB systems for 2010. From the CNET CES announcement:

Home-theater-in-a-box systems often get flak for the integrated components that don't work as well as separate components do, but with Blu-ray HTIBs we've generally found that the built-in disc player works as well as standalone units. Panasonic announced three new Blu-ray HTIBs for 2010, adding the similar features (Wi-Fi, Netflix) to the product line as the company did with its mainstream Blu-ray players.

All units are capable of wireless with a USB adapter, but there is no specific listing of DLNA compliance for US models--certificate looks like it might be Europe only (certificate). They do not have HDMI inputs, in contrast to competing models from LG and Samsung. Panasonic site here.

thinking about this syste, (730).. can someone give me a review of it? how does it sound? i currently have an Onkyo system that pretty happy with, but just purchased the 50" G25 plasma tv and want to take advantage of VieraLink... help?

I'm owning the BT-230, basically a nice and for me sufficient device. But it makes me crazy
- that MPEG2 files are only playable from DVD, but not from HD or SD or Memory Stick
- DivX files can be played from a Hd, but not from an USB Stick or SD-Card
- the AVCHDLite files from my panasonic camara can be played in original format from the SD, but after they were copied to a PC, I cannot transfer them again and play from a SDCard, HD or Stick....
=>what are the reasons for this stupid restrictions? Is there any solution?

Additionally, Fotos on a harddrive
- are shown in an endless list of pictures, no possibility to navigate through the directories on the HD where all my photos are on
- a diashow always starts at the first picture, I cannot choose a starting point, - Diashows cannot be interrupted or restarted (again only restart from picture 1)
- the music from Ipod that is played to the Diashow ALWAYS starts witht the first title....

These restrictions and stupid integrations drive me crazy...is there a device that does handle these things pragmatically and usable????
This device basically is a Linux PC, it could do things so much more userfriendly....

i just got this system (730) for our living room. looked to be a nice all in one simple system. didnt need anything fancy, as i already have all that in my basement setup so far im kinda "meh" on the whole thing. its got everything i need in terms of features, but it seems the sum of the parts dont quite come together nicely.

a few things that caught me off guard that i didnt know going in:
-sub is not powered. though im actually surprised at its output for not being powered. its decent.
-speaker hookups have proprietary connectors. DUMB. you're pretty much stuck using the provided 22-24 gauge speaker wire. the main unit also has no provision for bypassing the wireless surrounds and just plugging them in. appears the connectors are covered up and i didnt look closely to see if you could open those slots up.

I just got it sunday so ive not played with it extensively but so far i gotta say that its less than intuitive when it comes to getting the tv and bt730 on the proper inputs. and im even making use of the vieralink on my older panny plasma. it seems it tries to make it simple by changing inputs for you when you change the input on one or the other device but its often wrong. and if you try and throw the ipod mode in, you're stuck having to change the tv input manually. seems like the whole viera link should do the hard work especially since there really arent a whole lot of hookups to deal with. i mean its so simple, tv is hdmi 1 for all the bt730 functionality (bd, dvd, ipod, radio). the only time tv changes is for tv (cable dvr) and it moves to hdmi 2 and the bt730 goes to digital in2. its simple yet, the components cant do it themselves or do it wrong and i have to go correct it. i havent re-programmed my harmony for it yet but another thread here said there are no discreet codes for the inputs which sounds like a major bummer. i may be stuck using the bt730 remote and my cable co dvr remote.

I was facing similar issues, but I solved them by changing the settings in VERA link on my TV and on the BT230. Basically it's about the direction of control.

I set it in the way that the BT230 is not controling the TV when switched on or off, but the other way round it does. So switching on the TV also activates the BT230 (At least when it is playing bak the sound from the TV. That works pretty well.

For iPOD, if you wanna control it without having the TV on (what I preffer) you need to switch it to "ALL". So when switchin on your system, you change to iPOD, then using the STATUS button on the RC you switch between "MUSIC", "VIDEO" and "ALL".

For VIDEO and MUSIC you require the TV to be switched on to control it, cause only PANASONIC is mentioned on the iPOD display, but when on ALL, you can control it by the cursors of the RC on the iPOD acreen.

All in all, it makes sense to modify and play around with the VIERA liknk settings, to get a fitting "cooperation" of TV and BTx30...

I've played around with it some more and I'm more happy with it now. I've figured out how to control everything with the panny TV remote. Not as intuitive as my harmony but it will get the job done. So for 500 I'm pretty happpy with the functionality and features. Again its not super awesome but for a secondary cheap setup it's pretty nice

ok, i thought i had it figured out as noted in my above post. i forgot to check the most important thing, the dvr. i can access the dvr controls i need except for the LIST. the one item that shows what ive recorded. doh. back to two remotes. my "single" remote solution also wasnt wife friendly. she was the one that pointed out she couldnt bring up the list to watch her next episode of Cake Boss too. lol. guess im off to logitech to see if they've added codes for this thing.

Anyody help with using an iPhone with the BT230 ? Playing music works fine but when I want to watch videos that are on the iPhone it complains ....
I can hear the audio but no pictures, I have attached the supplied yellow ended jack cable from VIDEO out at the back to the V on the side of my Panasonic TX-L37S10B
tv..

Completely new to this and after following the instructions with this unit I cannot get sound from the unit watching TV. Have have the optical audio hooked to my dish receiver and the blu ray and i have HDMI from my dish to my plasma tv. What else do i need or are my settings wrong if someone could walk me through this I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks

I bought the SC-BT230 after visiting the U.S. Panasonic website and seeing there that the system had a stereo mini-plug that would allow me to attach a MP3 player to the system. I noticed one customer review that said the info was incorrect and there was no mini-plug on the system. Wasn't sure whether the person had just missed it. I also saw a bunch of reviews online talking about the unit's DLNA features, so I figured I could stream to it if I couldn't mini-plug it. Streaming from my computer using something like XBMC would be terrific--I could stream MP3's, video, pictures, etc.

Well, the joke was on me. There is no mini-plug and the DLNA feature exists on the SC-BT230 everywhere in the world but the U.S., as far as I can tell. I contacted Panasonic, and they said there were no plans to add DLNA in the future and that using, say, the Australian firmware that has DLNA would damage the unit (though I have to wonder how). It's a terrific small unit--good sound, compact, Internet services, etc. But the absence of a way to do some simple things is a pain.

Has anyone succeeded in getting an MP3 player attached to the system? Anyone try the Aussie firmware with any success? I don't suppose there's any other way to introduce a stream? On the other hand, maybe I'm being overly ambitious--are there U.S. HTIB systems that allow streaming? May be something about our legal situation / media company power that keeps really useful tech out of our hands.

i just got this system (730) for our living room. looked to be a nice all in one simple system. didnt need anything fancy, as i already have all that in my basement setup so far im kinda "meh" on the whole thing. its got everything i need in terms of features, but it seems the sum of the parts dont quite come together nicely.

a few things that caught me off guard that i didnt know going in:
-sub is not powered. though im actually surprised at its output for not being powered. its decent.-speaker hookups have proprietary connectors. DUMB. you're pretty much stuck using the provided 22-24 gauge speaker wire. the main unit also has no provision for bypassing the wireless surrounds and just plugging them in. appears the connectors are covered up and i didnt look closely to see if you could open those slots up.

I just got it sunday so ive not played with it extensively but so far i gotta say that its less than intuitive when it comes to getting the tv and bt730 on the proper inputs. and im even making use of the vieralink on my older panny plasma. it seems it tries to make it simple by changing inputs for you when you change the input on one or the other device but its often wrong. and if you try and throw the ipod mode in, you're stuck having to change the tv input manually. seems like the whole viera link should do the hard work especially since there really arent a whole lot of hookups to deal with. i mean its so simple, tv is hdmi 1 for all the bt730 functionality (bd, dvd, ipod, radio). the only time tv changes is for tv (cable dvr) and it moves to hdmi 2 and the bt730 goes to digital in2. its simple yet, the components cant do it themselves or do it wrong and i have to go correct it. i havent re-programmed my harmony for it yet but another thread here said there are no discreet codes for the inputs which sounds like a major bummer. i may be stuck using the bt730 remote and my cable co dvr remote.

This is a very important factor for me. I was looking to get this HTIB for the living room where I have in-wall speakers pre-wired, so I would only using the front and perhaps the sub that come with the system. But, I need to be able to use the wire that has already been fished through the walls. Is there no way to use my pre-existing wire?

Could I cut the included wires, and splice in my wires, using the proprietary speaker plugs?

A couple of days ago, netfix began having issues. It will load, but when I pick a program, it says that it is "not available at this time". My netflix account still works on our Wii and online. Anyone else have these issues or know a fix. I have the most current firmware update.

I recently purchased the scbt 730 system .. can you guys help me out ? I went through the forums and didn't find much... I am looking to unlock mine so that I can play my blu rays from France which are Region2/B ... I haven't updated the stock firmware yet.. anyone have or know which version is currently available and my unit is the north american version which is locked to Region A.

I am the proud owner of a BT-230 system but I also am the less than proud owner of a cat who likes nothing better than to chew through wires - speaker wires and low voltage PSU cables are her favourite Given that the connectors on the cables are Panasonic proprietary (I haven't seen them on the Maplin's or RS websites but I'd be happy to be corrected) does anyone know where I might lay my hands on a set of spare cables.

Also, she's had a pretty good go at the subwoofer cable and that is wired directly into the box with no obvious access mechanism. Does anyone know how to get into the box (it's out of warranty and I'm pretty OK with a soldering iron)?

I read on another post about adding lengths of cable into an exiting cable runs - what is the recommended joining method (e.g. solder and heatshrink, inline crimp, something else?). Would this have any adverse effect on the quality of the sound?

I contacted Panasonic, who first told me to do the hard reboot (+Vol, Eject, Power). It only angers the box and repeats the cycle, noted above.
Then Panasonic told me to send it in to Texas for service due to the Firmware update being interrupted.
I'm in Japan. This sounds like a common occurrence.
I don't want to send it to Texas. Does anyone have a solution I can do at home?

UPDATE: Burned another update CDR and the firmware update took. "Send it to Texas" they said.

Hello everyone, I am a proud owner of the Panasonic SC BT230 and I am looking for an alternative to the pricey DY WL10 Wireless LAN Adaptor. I don't want to waste my money on something that doesn't work so has anyone had any success with any alternatives? I hear that Netgear works for the televisions but I haven't heard any success stories with the blu ray/surround sound systems. Can anyone help? Please!

Hello everyone, I am a proud owner of the Panasonic SC BT230 and I am looking for an alternative to the pricey DY WL10 Wireless LAN Adaptor. I don't want to waste my money on something that doesn't work so has anyone had any success with any alternatives? I hear that Netgear works for the televisions but I haven't heard any success stories with the blu ray/surround sound systems. Can anyone help? Please!

When I first got this system I used a netgear adaptor that connected to the SC BT730 through the lan port. It was always very iffy due to the separate power supply needed . I finally gave in a purchased the panasonic adaptor that connects via USB - never had a problem since then.

Picked up a Panasonic BT-230 about 2 weeks ago. It has been updated to the latest firmware (according to the machine). My TV (Panasonic ST60) is also updated. I use an Onkyo R380 receiver in 5.1 audio setup. I only have my Wii U and the blu-ray player currently connected. Just to note, my previous TV was a Panasonic Viera LCD and I have had it for nearly 7 years without any of the follow issues. I have also had a Sony BDP 300 (or 350, cannot remember, but it is old) blu-ray player. The following are the issues I am having:

1) I was watching a blu-ray and the machine froze. I had to unplug it to get it started back up again. This has happened 3 times, now, in 2 weeks.
2) When I tried to run the Youtube app the first few times, I only received a blue screen (WiFi was setup and other apps worked). Now, I get the app working.
3) WORSE ISSUE: whenever I run blu-ray movies, I get audio at the menus (the first time running), but when I start the movie (or tv show, i.e. Game of Thrones), I get NO audio. I have to return to the main menu of the blu-ray and go back into the movie. I have to repeat this between 1 and 6 times, generally (usually takes at LEAST 3 times). Sometimes even the main menu has no audio when I return to it. Just to note, my Wii U has not had a single issue yet with this new TV or the old one, using this receiver.
4) I left the blu-ray player running, and turned on my Wii U and the TV began blinking blu intermittently. It continued until I turned off the blu-ray player. I plugged in my other blu-ray player, and nothing happened. This suggests to me that there is something wrong with the BT-230 as they should not interfere with one another as they are coming out of different HDMI sources in the Onkyo.

One last personal gripe, the Netflix button is in a HORRIBLE location, right above the up arrow on the remote! I cannot wait to set up my old Logitech Harmony One, because I've hit that button over and over.

I have a BT230, and I have not had any problems with the BD part. Nice stready picture, great sound. I don't have a problem with the Netflix button. Why you ask? Because I am not able to connect with Netflix Canada. There is only an app for Netflix US. I called Panasonic, and asked if Netflix Canada will be added to the menu, and the rep answered....No. Also, there is no DLNA function. With that, I could at least connect to my PC and watch it that way.When I aske the rep if the DLNA function will be added, since it is a function in the UK, for the same model....the rep replied.....No. I've never experienced a more useless model, and customer service. No explanation....just...No. I am certain that both of these functions could be added with a simple firmware upgrade. I went out and bought a Samsung BD player for $89, and I have both functions on that. Just sayin.

My question is. Does Panasonic actually read these forums? There is no real way to send suggestions online. So how about a search function for Netfilx. What a pain to have to add them to my favorites online, then go upstairs to watch the movie.

so its been about 4-5 days since my blu ray display has "please wait" message. I tried the reset with power button, open/close and volump up several times but nothing. Also tried disconnecting the power cord and nothing there either. Finally called customer service and they suggested either sending it to their service center in Texas or have local electronic store for fix. To my surprise they told to me to do latter to avoid big time fees so i called geek squad and they said they would not service unless i had warrenty from them. I dont want to get a another home theater system and would appreciate any suggestion from you folks